Now animal-rights campaigners Peta want the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships to go vegan after demanding that a Welsh town’s mackerel festival be rebranded to a cabbage festival

Animal rights group Peta has written to organisers of the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, urging them to switch to vegan alternatives, arguing it is wrong for pigs' "blood and fat" to be hurled "for a bit of fun". The annual event, in which competitors throw sausages to knock Yorkshire puddings off a 20ft plinth, is said to date back to a 1455 battle fought nearby during the War of the Roses. The demand follows a similar approach by Peta to Aberaeron in west Wales, where it wants the town's mackerel festival rebranded around cabbage instead of fish.

Peta offered to fund "cruelty-free" alternatives for the black pudding event, while organiser Paul Jenkins said vegan options were already available but would not be made compulsory, comparing the tradition to cheese-rolling. In Aberaeron, Peta proposed replacing the festival's papier-mâché mackerel, traditionally paraded through the town and burnt on the beach, with a giant papier-mâché cabbage, and supplied an AI-generated mock-up image. A club member rejected the idea, noting the fish used is not even real and calling the event "just a bit of fun" that brings the village together.